In an Internet era, a service provided by a third-party content provider is encapsulated into a series of data interfaces that can be easily recognized by a computer, and the data interfaces are opened for use by a developer. This behavior is referred to as an open application programming interface (API), and a platform that provides the open API is referred to as an open platform. By using the open platform, the third-party content provider can not only provide simple access to a Web web page, but also perform complex data interaction.
A current open platform generally provides only openness of data; for a large quantity of existing query requests described by a user in a natural language, a content source needs to be prepared in advance, or a specific third-party content provider needs to be invoked according to a fixed API, so that a third-party content provider that supports a natural language query determines, according to a query statement described in a natural language, a service that can be provided in a content source prepared in advance by the third-party content provider, and sends a query response message to the open platform.
In the prior art, there is a small quantity of third-party content providers that support a natural language query; therefore, compatibility between an open platform and a third-party content provider is not high, and in addition, when performing a natural language query based on the open platform, a user cannot appoint a third-party content provider according to a will of the user, which leads to relatively poor user experience.